Paul Howard Thomas

A 46-year-old man from Ludgershall, Wiltshire, has pleaded guilty to charges related to possessing a large number of indecent images of children. Paul Howard Thomas, residing on Andover Road, appeared at Salisbury Magistrates' Court on 20 July 2021, where he admitted to the offence of making almost 21,000 Category C images between 9 May 2020 and 21 December 2018. Category C images are classified as the least serious type, depicting erotic posing involving juveniles.

The case came to light following the tragic death of Thomas's partner. According to court proceedings reported by the Andover Advertiser, electronic equipment belonging to Thomas was returned to him by the deceased's daughter. Upon inspection, it became evident that the devices contained indecent images. Initially charged with 21,000 images, the prosecution reduced the count to 2,733 accessible images after determining that thousands more were stored in non-allocated clusters on his computer, inaccessible to him.

During the hearing, the prosecutor requested a pre-sentence report and proposed the imposition of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). This order, if granted, would prohibit Thomas from accessing internet-enabled devices without making their search history available for inspection and bar him from contacting children of any gender. In mitigation, defence solicitor Richard Griffiths emphasised that Thomas had downloaded the images rather than created them and was of previous good character, with his only prior court appearance being a driving offence 19 years earlier. Griffiths noted, 'There have been no previous convictions for similar matters,' and supported the need for a pre-sentence report, stating, 'While immediate sentencing sits within your powers, he has not been in court on similar charges and you will almost certainly want a report in this instance.' Thomas was not opposed to the SHPO.

Magistrates ordered the preparation of a pre-sentence report and remanded Thomas on unconditional bail. He is scheduled to return to Salisbury Magistrates' Court on 23 August 2021 at 10am for sentencing. The case highlights ongoing efforts to combat the possession and distribution of child exploitation material, with the discovery prompted by a personal tragedy rather than a routine investigation.